Mozzarella Schnitzel with Tomato Chili Salsa

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This recipe is part of a larger dinner party menu you can find on my Substack. The category is Night of 1000 Tomatoes, and it features five courses centered around tomatoes. You can find the recipe booklet and a handy party prep schedule here.

I’m a big fan of schnitzel. When I was in university, my biweekly indulgence was a chicken schnitzel sandwich from a campus pub. Looking back, I realize it wasn’t a particularly compelling sandwich, but when knockoff cereal was your norm, you tend to covet a crisp chicken cutlet no matter its quality level. The pub where I got that sandwich recently closed, so the nostalgia has been real. And that nostalgia reawakened a schnitzel-related idea I’d been toying with years ago: vegetarian schnitzel. Now, when approaching this quest, it seems only natural to start with tofu, but it just didn’t feel right to me. Then it hit me, Mozzarella Schnitzel. Essentially a mozzarella stick in a “cutlet” format. It couldn’t fail. Well, it could and it did. But eventually it was a success, and that’s why we’re all here.

On its own, this Mozzarella Schnitzel has a lot of charm, especially with the addition of homemade breadcrumbs. It’s gooey, salty, crisp, and generally a lot. So to cut through that richness, I devised a Tomato Chili Salsa. A fresh, exceedingly simple condiment that brings a little heat and a whole lot of refreshment to the plate. Make the Tomato Chili Salsa about a day in advance, so the tomatoes, chilis, shallots, and garlic have time to bond and meld. But don’t leave it in the fridge for so long that the tomatoes start to lose their structural integrity. Their fresh tomato texture is vitally important to the success of this dish. Or at least, that’s how I see it.

Now, let’s talk about the schnitzel itself because it took quite a bit of R&D to get it to this point. Containing molten cheese inside a crust comprised of flour, egg, and breadcrumbs does require a little fancy footwork. Testing this recipe required more than my fair share of scrubbing fried-on cheese. Thankfully, my favorite frying pan escaped unscathed, and I learned many valuable lessons. And now I can pass them on to you, so you don’t have to scour cheese off your favorite frying pan. 

The first thing I’m going to need you to do is toss your cheese slices in flour and then roll them flat. This helps us in two ways. The first is that the cheese is more or less the same thickness throughout, which means it will all melt at the same rate. And secondly, the crust-to-molten-cheese ratio will be spot on. Slice the cheese too thick and you’re overwhelmed with cheese and missing the crunch. Too little cheese? Well, same thing in reverse, with the added bonus of being much more difficult to flip. So slice your cheese 1/4” thick and then roll it out to 1/8” thick. To help you visualize 1/8”, think of pastry. That is about the same level of thickness. This practice is reminiscent of traditional schnitzel, where the meat cutlet is pounded flat for uniformity, and so the crust-to-meat ratio is perfect in each bite. 

Once your cheese is rolled out into cutlets, prepare your dredging ingredients. Basically, put some flour in a bowl, beat some eggs together in another bowl, and pour your homemade breadcrumbs into yet another bowl. Now, let’s bread! Start by rolling your cheese slice in the flour, then thoroughly coat it in the egg. Take it back to the flour and then return it once again to the egg. And finally, give it a toss in the breadcrumbs. The double coating of flour and eggs is crucial to containing the mozzarella once it hits the frying pan.

When I did one run through of the dredging ingredients, the cheese broke free in minutes and fried itself firmly to the bottom of my frying pan. Not cute. And when I did a full run of the dredge ingredients twice, including the breadcrumbs, the crust became far too thick. So the happy medium is a double dip of flour and egg, and one final toss in some breadcrumbs. But even with the reinforced dredge, you do have to be gentle when flipping your schnitzel. Flip your cheese cutlets the moment you see even a hint of molten cheese poking through the edges.

And one final tip for frying your Mozzarella Schnitzel: freeze your breaded cheese slices solid. This helps you in two ways: the first is maneuverability. The cheese takes longer to melt when you cook it from frozen, which means it will keep its shape while giving the breadcrumbs enough time to fry in the oil to that perfect golden hue. And from an entertaining standpoint, this is part of an upcoming Hardcore Supper Club dinner party menu after all, working with frozen Mozzarella Schnitzel means you can get the messy breading out of the way days before the first guest waltzes across your threshold. And speaking of entertaining, heat oil in two frying pans so you can pump out 3-4 servings at once. Or keep what you’ve already fried warm in a low oven while you work your way through the rest. Easy peasy!

Once you fish the last schnitzel out of the oil, you’re on the clock. You need to get the schnitzel to the table before the cheese sets up. Thankfully, this dish is dead simple to plate. Place two pieces of schnitzel on each plate and top with the Tomato Chili Salsa. Garnish with a sprinkling of fresh basil leaves and you’re good to go! And that is everything you need to know about this Mozzarella Schnitzel with Tomato Chili Salsa. Fresh, gooey, savoury, and crisp, this dish delivers nostalgia and sophistication on one plate.

Wishing you luck and cheese pulls! Enjoy!